Mapping The Land God Made In Anger: Conducting A Rapid, But Thorough Survey Of Namibia’s Forbidden Zone

Summary

There are few sites more remote or environments more hostile than the mostly abandoned diamond fields of the southern Namib Desert. This is the Sperrgebiet, declared the Forbidden Zone by the German colonial administration in 1908 and still forbidden to this day. It’s 26,000 km2 of industrial debris and a few sand-drenched settlements. Our goal was to produce a comprehensive map of the town of Pomona, abandoned in 1928, and nearby mining camp Stauch’s Lager in as little time in the field as possible. Before leaving for the field, we used Google Earth Pro and Didger, a geological digitizing and mapping program, to create a geo-referenced base map that we simply had to ground-truth in the field. This presentation will discuss the value of using this high-tech low-cost methodology to map remote and/or inaccessible archaeological sites. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 959